Badenoch says she’s a ‘huge fan’ of Elon Musk, as different Tory chief candidates decline to reward him – UK politics reside

Ministers giving speeches at occasion convention, however usually crucial information pertains to one thing they don’t announce on the platform. Essentially the most vital information from Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, this week was about how she would possibly change the fiscal guidelines to permit extra borrowing, however there was solely a obscure trace of this in her precise speech.

And at the moment the Occasions is splashing on a narrative by Matt Dathan about jail coverage which can be doubtlessly transformatory – and never one thing talked about by Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, in her speech.

Dathan says the federal government is a schemed utilized in Texas that permits inmates to earn factors for early launch in the event that they participate in programmes that can reduce their possibilities of reoffending. He says:

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, plans to go to the US state later this 12 months to see how Britain may emulate its success in decreasing its excessive jail inhabitants and charge of reoffending.

Prisoners in Texas can scale back the time they serve in jail by incomes credit score for good behaviour. In addition they win factors by taking part in programs geared toward tackling the underlying causes of offending equivalent to medicine.

This consists of training, coaching and vocational workshops, in addition to classes on drug rehabilitation and behavioural change.

Mahmood and Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, are understood to be whether or not related schemes could possibly be applied in England and Wales, the place prisoners’ launch dates are decided partially by the chance they pose to the general public.

In his personal speech to the convention, Keir Starmer recommended he wished to see extra prisons constructed, no more inmates launched early. “If we want justice to be served some communities must live close to new prisons,” he stated. However in her speech Mahmood stated she wished to see fewer girls going to jail, and in the end “fewer women’s prisons”.

Bursars at unbiased colleges within the UK are making ready for fewer pupils to depart on account of the federal government’s coverage of including VAT to charges than current experiences have recommended.

Since Labour outlined its coverage, there have been wide-ranging estimates concerning the affect greater charges might need on pupil numbers, with some surveys suggesting as much as one in 4 dad and mom could possibly be pressured to take their youngsters out of the non-public sector.

The newest, from UK wealth administration agency Saltus earlier this week, discovered one in eight (13%) dad and mom are planning to maneuver their youngsters into state college this educational 12 months.

Estimates like this have been extensively publicised by campaigners, and newspapers, against the VAT coverage.

Now, nevertheless, it has emerged that “most” non-public colleges are basing their calculations on an estimate that round 3-5% of pupils will go away on account of the coverage, in line with the Unbiased Colleges’ Bursars Affiliation (ISBA).

That is even decrease than the estimate put ahead by main financial suppose tank, the Institute for Fiscal Research, which predicted the coverage would have “a relatively limited effect on numbers attending private schools – perhaps a reduction of 3–7%”, a determine which has been relied upon by Labour in defence of their coverage.

Talking to a web based discussion board debating the problem yesterday, ISBA chief working officer John Murphie was requested concerning the modelling getting used to estimate the affect of the federal government’s VAT coverage on the sector.

“There’s going to be a contraction, there’s no doubt about that,” Murphie stated. “The working assumption that most schools are taking is that something around between 3 and 5% of pupils,” he stated. The ISBA gives assist to greater than 1200 unbiased colleges.

The coverage, which comes into pressure in January, has triggered numerous tales, warning that personal colleges will go bust and state colleges will likely be unable to deal with the mass exodus of youngsters from the unbiased sector.

The web assembly, hosted by the Unbiased Colleges Present which takes place in November, was additionally informed that some dad and mom are planning to maneuver out of London in an effort to discover non-public colleges with decrease charges in different areas of the nation.

Non-public colleges, in the meantime, are a variety of cost-cutting measures, together with rising class sizes, decreasing the curriculum supply, redundancies, mergers and asset disposals, the discussion board heard. Colleges have been additionally suggested to spend money on a robotic to mark out cricket pitches to economize on a groundsman.

Patrick Wintour

The previous UK ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher, who stays intently in contact with diplomats on the UN, stated the joint assertion backing a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon signed by the US, France, the UK, the EU and eight different international locations , together with three Gulf States, now needs to be used to result in change on the bottom.

If that occurs, he stated it may signify a watershed within the disaster and even a second when diplomacy fought again.

He additionally praised the UK’s overseas secretary David Lammy for “coming out impressively early and hard” in favour of a right away ceasefire in the way in which a Labour authorities didn’t do within the 2006 Lebanese disaster

He stated: “We have got to use this scaffolding so it turns into something that matters on the ground and not just to pause it for 21 days.”

He set out three headline priorities.

1) “Get all sides to step back from escalation. There are signs that Israel is holding back from hitting Beirut and there are signs of Hezbollah holding back from hitting Tel Aviv at scale. Maybe this shows the mutual recognition of the dangers of escalation.”

2) “Get the official Lebanese army on the ground on the Israel-Lebanon border – not Hezbollah, not Iran – get state authority back into the south Lebanon border.”

3 Return to persuading each side – Hamas and Israel to re-engage with the Gaza ceasefire settlement. “It is that agreement that gets th- e hostages out, the aid in and in the end potentially opens the conditions for the two state solution”.

Elon Musk has not been invited to a world funding summit organised by the federal government subsequent month, the BBC is reporting. Nobody will likely be stunned. Regardless of being the richest particular person on the planet, and a visitor of honour at Rishi Sunak’s AI summit final 12 months, the far-right billionaire spent a lot of the summer time attacking Keir Starmer on X, his social media platform, over the federal government’s dealing with of the riots and posting or reposting feedback concerning the state of affairs within the UK which have been inflammatory, conspiracy theorist or simply wholly false.

However one particular person could also be disenchanted. In an interview with the Spectator, Kemi Badenoch, the Tory management candidate hottest with occasion members in line with most surveys, has stated she is a “huge fan” of his.

The journal requested all 4 candidates in the event that they thought Musk had been good for freedom of speech, and Badenoch, the previous enterprise secretary, replied:

I believe Elon Musk has been a improbable factor for freedom of speech. I’ll maintain my hand up and say, I’m an enormous fan of Elon Musk.

I take a look at Twitter earlier than he took over and after: there’s much more free speech. Sure, there are lots of, many extra issues that I see on X, as he calls it, that I don’t like.

However I additionally know that views are usually not suppressed the way in which that they have been, that there was a cultural institution – that was very left – that managed various discourse on that platform.

All the opposite candidates have been much more circumspect in how they replied to this query.

Robert Jenrick, the previous immigration minister and present favorite within the contest, stated that he didn’t have a robust opinion concerning the X proprietor, however that he was “not going to be booking a tête-à-tête with Elon Musk any time soon”.

James Cleverly, the previous residence secretary, stated that when Musk took management of X, he tried to counter the notion that right-of-centre voices have been being silenced on it. However Cleverly stated you need to be “very, very careful about curtailing voices that you disagree with”.

And Tom Tugendhat, the previous safety minister, stated he was anxious about malign states exploiting the web for propaganda functions. (There are claims that is occurring rather more on X since Musk took over, however Tugendhat immediately make that connection.)

John Healey, the defence secretary, is internet hosting a gathering of the Aukus partnership at the moment, because the UK and Australia are beginning talks on a bilateral treaty.

The UK, Australia and the US fashioned the Aukus alliance, which is targeted on submarine defence and Healey is internet hosting a gathering with the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, who can be Anthony Albanese’s deputy prime minister, and US defence secretary Lloyd James Austin III.

The Ministry of Defence can be negotiating a separate Aukus side-deal with Australia, which it says will “lay out the nations’ relationship on submarine co-operation, as work progresses on future conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines for the UK and Australia”.

In an announcement forward of the assembly, Healey stated:

I’m proud to be the primary UK defence secretary to host a gathering of Aukus defence ministers in Britain.

As Aukus companions, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an more and more unstable world. It is a partnership that can increase jobs, development and prosperity throughout our three nations, in addition to strengthening our collective safety.

I’m delighted that we’ll quickly be commencing negotiations on a bilateral Aukus treaty with Australia, which is able to assist create a safer and steady Indo-Pacific for many years to return.

Good morning. Keir Starmer spoke on the United Nations safety council yesterday, however at the moment he’s talking on the UN’s common meeting (UNGA). In some respects these are chaotic conferences – world leaders queuing as much as give speeches one after one other, usually over-running their instances slots, not essentially having a lot optimistic affect – however that doesn’t imply it’s not a giant gig for a debut PM.

In accordance with advance briefing, Starmer will say the UK is returning to “responsible global leadership” as a result of it’s in British pursuits to handle issues world wide. He’ll say:

Warfare, poverty and local weather change all rebound on us at residence. They make us much less safe, they hurt our financial system, they usually create migration flows on an unprecedented scale.

For the remainder of the speech, you might have to attend some time. In accordance with the schedule, it is going to be 10.30pm UK time when Starmer will get to have his say, after Greece however earlier than Nepal.

Earlier than the speech (morning US time, afternoon UK time) he is because of meet US enterprise leaders, together with Jon Grey, president of the funding big Blackstone, whih is saying a £10bn deal to develop Europe’s largest AI information centre in Blyth, Northumberland. Rowena Mason and Lisa O’Carroll have the story right here.

Yesterday, in addition to addressing the safety council, Starmer met Ursula von der Leyen, the European Fee president, who confirmed that the 2 will meet in Brussels subsequent week. Starmer stated this is able to be an opportunity to “reset our relations with the EU”.

I wish to reset our relationship with the EU and make Brexit work for the British folks.

Wanting ahead to visiting Brussels subsequent week to begin discussions with @vonderleyen.

In Westminster parliament is in recess and, with Labour recovering after their occasion convention, and the Conservatives preparing for theirs, there’s a little bit of a hiatus within the information cycle. Listed here are a few of the occasions within the diary.

9.30am: The ONS is releasing violent crime figures for England and Wales.

Morning: Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, offers proof to the Covid inquiry as a part of the module trying on the pandemic’s affect on the NHS.

Midday: John Swinney, the primary minister, takes questions within the Scottish parliament.

2.15pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, holds a press convention together with his US and Australian counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Richard Marles, concerning the Aukus defence pact.

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